Thursday, November 22, 2012

Pitcher's Park?

The Athletics moved to Oakland in 1968 from Kansas City.  Since then, here's what the A's have compiled.  It's a startling list:

Oakland Coliseum, Oakland A's

44 seasons
15 division titles
1 wild card
6 AL pennants
4 World Championships
5 Cy Young Awards
7 MVP's
5 Hall of Famers
7 Rookies of the year
4 Rolaids Relief Awards
7 Home Run champions
4 ERA leaders
3 Saves leaders...

ZERO batting titles

Pitcher's Park?

Monday, November 12, 2012

Giants Franchise - Historical Greatness

I've heard some all-time franchise stats before, scattered here and there from announcers or talk show hosts.  I've wanted to collect or calculate some franchise stats for a long time now.  Fortunately the Baseball Reference [dot] com website has some sortable data that is easily accessible.

So, in case you've wondered about all-time rankings for franchises, I can tell you about a great franchise: the Giants.  The Giants are the winningest franchise in baseball history, winning more games than any other franchise, ahead by several hundred wins.  Of course, the NL is older than the AL, so it stands to reason that the Giants would have more wins than the Yankees.  The Giants are surpassed in winning percentage by only the Yankees.  The Giants have more hall-of-fame players than any other franchise, by far.  Only the Cubs have scored more runs; only the Yankees have hit more home runs; only the Yankees have won more pennants; and by the slimmest of margins, only the Dodgers have a better all-time ERA.

The Yankees, Cardinals and A's are the only teams with more World Series championships, but looking at the Giants history, they should have won more than the A's and Cards.  But they didn't.  Maybe they will pass these teams in the next decade or so (as they owe it to their starved fans).  Go Giants!

Friday, November 2, 2012

The Giants Win The World Series - Again

The Giants win the 2012 World Series!  Their second championship in three years.  I can say right now that this will never get old, as I'm sure fans of other teams have found when their teams win several in a row or in an era.

The win was in such convincing fashion, that it will be well remembered in baseball history.  They didn't only beat the best team in the AL, the Tigers were a powerhouse team with the most potent lineup, the most visible 3-4-5 hitters in the game - including the triple crown winner - and what most people consider the best pitcher in baseball.  They were picked to win it all before the season, and it came as no surprise that the Tigers put it together in the post-season.

The Giants will be remembered for winning six consecutive elimination games, three after being down 2-0 to the Reds, and three after being down 3-1 to the Cardinals.  They will also be remembered for beating Verlander in game 1, sparked by an historic three-homer game by Pablo Sandoval.  They will be remembered for pitching two consecutive shutouts against this lineup, and for striking out the triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera to win it all.  They will be remembered for Barry Zito's game 5 shutout against the Cardinals in NLCS game 5, and his victory over Justin Verlander in WS game 1.

Well, they will be remembered for lots more than that, but I'll save the detailed stats for a future post.  Keep it up Giants!  Let's try to win some more.  We can smell dynasty.